ECONOMICS Bloomberg Businessweek February 8, 2021The Biden Doctrine
Ahmed, a member of Obama’s National Security
Council who’s been brought in to oversee the
StateDepartment’spolicy-planningfunction,and
Sullivan,whoadvisedBidenonnationalsecurity
matterswhenhewasvicepresident.
Thegrouplaidouttheirrecommendationsin
a 90-pagereportreleasedinSeptember.Among
otherthings,it calledforthedraftingofa “national
competitivenessstrategy”tocoordinatebothpub-
licandprivateinvestmentandstayaheadofChina.
Anothersuggestion:broadeningthescopeofinter-
nationaltradenegotiationstoaddressissuessuch
ascurrencyswingsandtaxincentivesthatspur
companiestoshiftproductionoffshore.Oneover-
archingthemewastheneedforgreatercoordina-
tionbetweenforeignanddomesticpolicysothe
U.S.doesa betterjobofequippingworkerswiththe
skillstheyneedtoadapttobigshiftsinthelabor
market.Insomecasesthatmeansinternationalpri-
oritiestakinga backseattodomesticones,anidea
theBidenadministrationhasendorsedearlyon.
“We havetoputourselvesina positionof
strengthtobeabletodealwiththechallengeswe
facearoundtheworld,”fromthe“greatpower”bat-
tlewithChinatonuclearproliferation,Sullivantold
a Jan. 29 U.S.InstituteforPeaceforuminwhich
herepeatedlyemphasizedtheneedfora focuson
domesticproblems.
Whata foreign policyforthemiddleclass
willmean inpracticeremains anopenques-
tion.Throughspokespeople,bothSullivanand
Ahmeddeclinedrequestsforinterviews.Butother
membersoftheCarnegietaskforceinsistthatwhat
theBidenadministrationis pursuingis morethan
justa reframingofpastinternationalistpoliciesor
a relabelingofTrump’s“AmericaFirst.”
Forthereport,researcherstraveledtoColorado,
Nebraska,andOhiotosoundoutmiddle-class
Americansontopicsrangingfromdefensespend-
ingandforeignaidtotradeandtariffs.Whatthey
heardwasneithergreatenthusiasmforTrump’s
brandofprotectionismnortheslavishdevotion
tofreemarketsthatcamebefore,saystask-force
memberTomWyler,whoservedasPritzker’stop
internationaleconomicadviserattheCommerce
Departmentandnowworksforherinvestment
firm,PSPPartnersLLC.Thatmeanstheworld
oughttobereadyfora U.S.thathasa sharperview
ofitsowneconomicinterests,Wylersays.“Idon’t
thinkyouaregoingtoseethisadministrationtrade
offthebread-and-buttereconomicissuesforstra-
tegicpriorities,”hesays.
Alsoemergingfromthetaskforce’sworkwas
a recognitionofpastmissteps.Inhindsightthe
properU.S.response 30 yearsagotoglobalization30
ILLUSTRATION BY PATRIK MOLLWING. SULLIVAN: CAROLYN KASTER/AP PHOTOJoe Biden has followed the path of many American
presidents in bringing his own foreign policy brand
into office. His “foreign policy for the middle class”
is less pithy than Donald Trump’s “America First.”
But for a world trying to gauge the U.S.’s new
leadership—and an electorate with an uneasy rela-
tionship with globalization and other disruptive eco-
nomic forces—it may be just as consequential.
Biden’s promise to the world is reengagement,
whether on issues from which the U.S. has been
absent, such as climate change, or in multilateral
institutions his predecessor sought to blow up, such
as the World Health Organization. But national secu-
rity adviser Jake Sullivan and other senior aides are
also making it clear that doesn’t portend a return to
a pre-Trump model.
The big idea is that since the end of World War II,
Washington has gradually shifted from policies that
fostered middle-class prosperity to ones that fur-
thered the interests of multinational corporations
and investors. That, of course, is the same eco-
nomic grievance that Trump harnessed to win the
presidency in 2016—the elites sold us out. The con-
sequences of that perceived betrayal are by now
familiar: rising inequality, stagnant median house-
hold incomes, and employment shocks caused by
the rise of China and technological change.
In the wake of Trump’s victory, some grad-
uates of the Obama administration including
Sullivan embraced the idea that U.S. policymakers
had failed for too long to acknowledge the fallout
from globalization. As Trump unleashed his trade
wars, jeopardizing long-standing international
alliances in the name of the American worker, the
Obama graduates were teaming up with centrist
Republican policy veterans to devise an alternative.
Among the efforts was the establishment of
a bipartisan task force under the auspices of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a
Washington, D.C., think tank where Obama’s for-
mer commerce secretary, Penny Pritzker, chairs
the board of trustees. The stated goal when it con-
vened in 2018: come up with ideas for a foreign pol-
icy that works better for the middle class.
At the helm were two people now in senior
roles in the Biden administration: Salman○ Members of the president’s inner circle have
spent the past few years trying to devise a
foreign policy that better serves the middle class○ Sullivan“I don’t think
you are going
to see this
administration
trade off
the bread-
and-butter
economic
issues for
strategic
priorities”